Saudi central bank chief: can deal with any pressure on dollar peg

Reuters Staff

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ABU DHABI, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s central bank is setting policy in line with the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy and has enough tools to deal with any pressure on the riyal’s peg to the dollar, Saudi central bank governor Ahmed al-Kholifey said on Tuesday.

Kholifey was responding at a financial industry conference in Abu Dhabi to a question on whether U.S. interest rate hikes expected this year could put pressure on the peg.

He also said the Saudi central bank wanted to be ahead of the curve in employing new financial technology, especially in the payments system.

Earlier this month, the central bank signed a deal with U.S.-based Ripple to help banks in the kingdom settle payments using blockchain software. Kholifey also noted that his central bank was talking with its UAE counterpart about uses for blockchain. (Reporting by Stanley Carvalho and Tom Arnold; Writing by Andrew Torchia)